Brilliant insight buried deep within the comments on the Sydney Morning Herald

[quaker bill]

45. Precisely

The "Honeymooners" (Art Carney / Jackie Gleason) is a wondeful example of the 1950s. A comedy about a bus driver and sewer worker living a tight existence but OK with their wives at home all day. Today, even couples with professional level educations, do not live, even cheaply without both of them working. Very few if any bus drivers and sewer workers have a wife who stays at home, if she has another choice.

I grew up in a neighborhood full of defense and space industry engineers, not executives just workers. All of their wives stayed at home, and any that wanted one had a house, a speed boat, and two shiny cars in the garage. Beyond that they had real defined benefit pensions and substantial savings. Many became +/- millionaires by the time they retired, and bought a second house in the NC Mountains to enjoy cooler summer days.

The interesting bit when you look at it is just how small the slice of overall economic productivity is required to change today back to something more like that. Turn just 10% of current corporate profits into wages and benefits in most industries (leaving 90% of profits alone), and the culture would transform massively.